Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Wing ❯ Broken Wing - Chapter Nineteen ( Chapter 19 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Authors Notes: My, my, my, these authors notes just keep getting longer and longer, ne



Authors Notes: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out, but I've had papers due and finals to take! And this chapter is a bit shorter due to that. My, my, my, these authors notes just keep getting longer and longer, ne? But I have to answer your questions and comments! Some of you were right on the mark with how I'm going to bring Usagi out of her trance. But I'm not saying who! Trudging right along; Darcey: ACK! Don't ask me questions like that!! You know I can't answer them!! It's a number one rule of the Shock Queen: NEVER reveal what's gonna happen to your readers! Marika Webster: ::whaps her and pulls her off the wall: MY wall!!!! Silver Dragonfly: Hehe, getting a little impatient with catatonic Usagi, are we? Mystical Jade: I'm gonna be saying this to several people, but you're the first! Thanks for your support for the Hiiro/Relena pairing, even if you normally don't prefer them together. :o) chime: Wow, downloading all the chapters? What do you DO with them all?? Frame them and hang them on your desktop? Teehee. Lazy is bad! Reviewing is good! Hime: ::huggles:: Another Moonie after my own heart!! Although I can't reveal future relationships! But I WILL say this: HILDE MUST DIE!! ::cackles:: In my perfect little Gundam Wing universe, Hilde does not exist. Hehehehehe. Oh, and on the mailing list you go! Hikari no Tenshi: ::gasps and struggles for breath:: Meep, Hikari-sama! (Yes, just for saying your gonna write an epilogue for Geisha, you have been catapulted into the ranks of the "-sama's"). I'm so honored you're giving your grudging approval to my Hiiro/Relena pairing! Rashaka: There's just so much to respond to! Rashaka-chan, you're giving me an overload!!!! But I love it! :o) Sailor X: Hehehe, I'm glad I didn't completely explode your fragile mind, there. But you're all lucky, because I don't think I'm CAPABLE of writing a lemon. ::blush:: GoldenGoddess: Awww, you know you'd haveta forgive me eventually… I'm planning more fanfics! Lady: Um… I'm sorry? No, wait, no I'm not! I have tainted your soul forever! BWAHAHAHA--::chokes:: Dangit. Dreama Tsuki: I'm not telling you anything! I'm not revealing anything!! I can't! It's against the Shock Queen's number one rule! See above. Sailor Grape: ::whistles innocently:: Maybe Usagi'll wake up in this chapter… maybe she won't. Who knows? Not even me! It's all a roll of the dice! C'mon, baby, mama needs a new pair o' shoes! Rita: Relena didn't mean a literal evil, like Alpha is possessed or something. She meant that Alpha IS evil, just in itself. As a machine of destruction powered by a weapon of Light. Wicked Serenity Moon: Ah, don't you just love the ~~**~~? ::giggles:: BabySnowAngel: Thankies, I'm glad you liked the Hiiro/Relena scene. And The Duo/Usagi scene is one of my favorites too. ::grins::

Disclaimer: Aw, c'mon, do I haveta say it again? ::gets whapped by a lawyer:: Dangit. Gundam Wing, not mine, Sailormoon, not mine.

Author Recommendations: Mitsugi! She wrote a wonderful GW fic titled Let's Make a Deal!




Broken Wing - Chapter Nineteen


Somehow she knew the bed was empty before she ever opened her eyes. It must have been her understanding of him, his habits, and his mind. He would never have allowed them to awaken in the same bed, not even after sharing a night like the one before. It would have made it all the harder to say goodbye.
She wondered exactly when he'd left. Had he watched her sleep for hours, slipping out of the door at the first pale glimpse of sunlight? Or had he only waited until she was too deep into satisfied sleep to notice his abandonment? It didn't really matter. All that mattered was that he left, and she had known he would. Yet she'd still allowed him the comfort he'd wanted. Silly, perhaps, and quite stupid, of course. Regrettable? No.
Relena rose, wrapping a sheet about herself, and padded across the carpet into her private bath room. She shed the sheet, leaving it on the floor for the servants to clean and wonder about. Stepping into the large, glass surrounded shower stall, the princess turned the knob and released a torrent of fresh, clean water. She let it fall over her face for a moment, feeling it trail over her skin. While it felt delightful, and she certainly could use the cleaning, Relena couldn't help but feel as if she were washing away her last contact with him. As if she should keep the places he'd touched as a shrine in case he didn't return to her.
Don't think about that.
A shudder emanated from the knot within her stomach, the one that made her feel sick when she thought about Hiiro not coming back. Clenching her jaw tightly, shutting her eyes, Relena took a deep breath to calm herself. She couldn't become panicky; she couldn't be ill. A princess must overlook sickness and ignore panic. Her country and its peace were more important than her own health.
So was Usagi.
She'd promised Duo she would take care of the silent girl. He'd wrung the promise from her multiple times before finally taking Usagi to her room. It was the only thing that would finally allow him to feel right about leaving the Earthsphere after Milliardo.
Remembering this, Relena sighed and finished her shower quickly, dressing with the precision of royalty. The stiff, starched school uniform could be uncomfortable sometimes, but that and her Sanch diplomatic uniform were the only clothing she really felt comfortable in anymore. Never again could Relena Peacecraft don a normal dress or a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Not even for one day, to pretend that she was Relena Darlian again, her father was alive, and she didn't know she was the only living princess of the Sanch Kingdom. Those days were gone. It was for the best, she supposed. Sanch needed a leader, and if Milliardo refused, who else was there but herself?
She suddenly wished very much that Usagi would awaken. The hopeless wish stung her eyes with tears. Relena blinked them away and rushed out of her door as if the tears followed closely behind. Hopeless wish. Really, it was. Usagi woke for no one, only sank deeper into her own vortex of despair or depression or guilt or whatever it was that kept her silent and her eyes dulled.
Tap, tap, tap; her shoes against the floors. Swish, swish; her skirts against her legs. Why? Her eyes against Usagi's still form.
Standing in the doorway of Usagi's bedroom, Relena watched the girl lay in bed, eyes trained on the ceiling. That must have been how Duo had left her the previous night. The princess couldn't imagine the pain Duo must be feeling. At least Hiiro vaguely responded to her.
She stepped inside to clear the air around her of the lingering presence of Hiiro. He, like the tears of her eyes, followed her always even when he wasn't there.
"Usagi-chan," she knelt beside the bed and gently pulled the blankets back, "I'm going to take you outside today. Only for a little while; I have a meeting later. I always have a meeting later." Relena paused to swallow back her sorrow, "Noin will take you into the nearest village then for some shopping. You'll like that."
Usagi, as usual, did not reply.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


Space stretched out on either side of them, vast and empty. Even with all of the planets and colonies and other objects scattered through its immense body, space was always empty. The infinite distance between stars could never be filled, no matter how hard humanity worked to clutter it like they had cluttered their planet. There, at least, was one comfort.
Duo thought so, anyway.
Indigo orbs searching out points of light in the darkness, the braided one felt it a lucky break for human beings that space was so vast. Even if people crawled far enough away from Earth to cause damage to more than just their own planet, there would still be room for them somewhere. It was more kindness than they deserved, really. And people thought that God was so unforgiving or uncaring. God was a softie, to let his children have full run of such a beautiful Creation, and love them no matter how much of it they destroyed.
"Duo, you okay?"
The indigo gaze was broken by startled blinking. Beside him, Quatre leaned on the armrest in earnest concern for the welfare of his silent friend. Shining blue eyes scrutinized every inch of Duo's face, searching for a trace or a glimmer of anything wrong. Duo gave the small blonde a trademark Shinigami grin and slapped the boy on the back.
"What're you even askin' me that for, huh? I'm fine!" Duo kept grinning even as Quatre coughed from the slap, "What could be wrong? Shinigami is goin' into battle again!"
"I-I just thought," the blonde choked out, "that you might be thinking about Usagi-san."
Just as quickly as he had turned it on, Duo let the façade of mirth slip from his clumsy fingers. He swallowed back the thought of his precious golden angel lying lifeless back on Earth and turned away from Quatre. Only blackness met his gaze from the other side of the window pane. Blackness and emptiness. He couldn't even see her face in the reflection.
"Duo, it's okay. You left her there to protect her. If Milliardo and the White Fang take out their anger on the Earthsphere, she could be harmed." He heard Quatre sigh and felt the slender hand pat his own. "You did the right thing to leave her behind."
"I'm not worried about having not done the right thing," Duo closed his eyes and shook his head, "I'm worried . . . that she won't be there when I get back. Not dead. Just . . . not there."
"Setsuna wouldn't take her away without letting us say goodbye. She couldn't be that cruel."
"She couldn't?" Duo snorted and turned back to his friend with a derisive glare. "She brought Usagi here, didn't she?"
He saw the pensive pause in Quatre's eyes. The blonde knew his words were true, and couldn't find a way to relieve Duo's worries. The braided one sighed, knowing that this would weigh on the little Arabian's mind unless he could be pacified.
"Hey man, don't worry about it. It's not your fault that Guardian is a heartless bitch. And it's definitely not your fault that I'm all worried! So get over it!"


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


"Duo! Stop! Let me go!"
Trowa glanced two rows over his right shoulder to see Duo holding Quatre in a friendly headlock, noogie-ing the poor boys hair into a platinum mess. A gentle smile crossed his features at the sight. It really was good for Quatre to be around Duo. As much as Trowa loved the little one, even he recognized the need for Quatre to loosen up a bit.
"It's just a little noogie, Quatre! If you can't handle that, how are you ever gonna fill up space with air, huh?"
Trowa smirked at that. Leave it to Duo to find Quatre's weakness and use it. Yes, the little blonde worked too much for it to be good for him. He could find fault in himself for the most obscure of problems and never once realize that it might not be his fault at all. Yet with all of this came a beautiful kindness, a gentleness that so few people had and most lacked. It was this more than anything else that drew the tall acrobat to this smaller, more delicate boy.
"Do you think either of them will make it?"
Trowa moved only his eyes to glance at Hiiro sitting beside him. The stoic one had been quiet until now, unusually silent even for Hiiro. Trowa assumed it had something to do with the lovely Sanch princess left on Earth.
"What do you mean?" Wufei asked for him.
"Quatre isn't quite over his brush with the Zero System," Hiiro clarified, never looking up from his flight tray, "and Duo has Usagi-san on the brain. I don't know if either of them is ready for a battle right now."
"You've got a point."
Trowa watched as Wufei leaned back in his seat, dark eyes glaring at the ceiling, one hand perched just beneath his chin. He seemed to be trying to think of a solution to the problem of their two weakest links.
"They won't be a problem." The other two looked at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. Trowa felt it only fair to elaborate what he meant. "Quatre is stronger than you two give him credit for. He can handle battle. He could handle the Zero System, if he had to. I have faith in him." The tall one shifted and glanced over his shoulder once more, where now Duo and Quatre were involved in some sort of heavy conversation. Turning back to his silent comrades, he continued, "Duo is as far from a liability as is possible to be. He doesn't let anything distract him while in battle. If you think his worry for Usagi-san will hinder him, you're wrong. It'll make him stronger. He'll want to protect her at all costs, and he won't let anything keep him from it."
Neither Hiiro nor Wufei ever made an answer to his little speech. But neither made another argument for them being weaknesses either. Satisfied, Trowa sat back in his own seat and crossed his arms. All that remained was arrival at their space headquarters. A ship that Duo's friend Howard had somehow come into command of.
Peacemillion.


~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~


What are you doing here, Relena? You're insane!
Relena Peacecraft looked up into the darkened, cold, uncaring metal face of the Alpha Gundam. This evil amalgam of science and magic stared back down at her with what seemed almost malicious stoicism. Underneath that inanimate glare she felt flattened and couldn't remember why she had left her meeting to come to this place.
Why did I come here? Why?
Oh . . . right . . . the theory.
At her meeting with the civilian representatives of Sanch, the princess had not been able to keep her mind on what was being said. Instead she kept seeing the looming form of Alpha over her and hearing Quatre's excited voice proclaiming her to be the descendant of Usagi as some long ago Moon princess. As she sat there in the conference room, a myriad of voices floating about her head without actually penetrating it, a sudden and crazy idea had burst through her brain. Consequently she had burst from the room and down the halls until she stood before the great metal beast.
From the left leg of the giant Gundam, the Silver Crystal sparkled and beckoned to her.
Hesitantly, not trusting herself or her insane thought, Relena walked closer to Alpha and reached out to touch the glittering jewel. Hiiro claimed that he and the others had tried with no luck to remove the Crystal from Alpha. Someone, she couldn't exactly remember who- maybe Duo- had offered the idea that perhaps since Usagi controlled the gem, she was the only one who could remove it. Usagi or . . .
Someone related to her.
This won't work . . . this can't work. It's crazy, it's stupid, it's-
With the lightest touch, the Silver Crystal fell into her hand.
Relena jumped and nearly dropped her precious treasure. As much as she had wanted to believe that she was truly related to Usagi, and that her plan might work, she had never ever expected it to actually be true. And here the removal of the Crystal had been so easy for her. What other proof could she require of hr heritage?
"Usagi-chan," she whispered into the dark hangar. Because she knew exactly what she wanted to do with the Crystal now that it was freed from its metal shell of a home. The Sanch princess stumbled away from the machine that caused her so much fear and fled the hangar, Silver Crystal clutched tightly in both hands. Through the hallways, around servants and other worried people, past her own living quarters and into the room where her ill-fated ancestor tended to be. There she found Noin wheeling the girl's wheelchair over towards the sun-caressed window.
"Miss Relena! I didn't expect you from the meeting for another half hour! You're just in time, I just brought Usagi-chan back from our shopping tri-"
"Thank you, Noin," Relena gasped out, waving the woman away, "You may leave now." At Noin's confused look, Relena sighed and added quickly, "I'll call you if I require your services again, thank you." Looking ruffled and annoyed, Noin obeyed. Relena walked over to Usagi and knelt beside the wheelchair. "Usagi-chan, you used this Crystal to heal Trowa. If I'm truly your descendant, I should be able to use it to bring you out of this. But I . . . I don't know how. Help me, please."
Taking Usagi's hands with her own, the Silver Crystal clasped between the two pairs, Relena waited for some sort of sign and received nothing.
"Oh, please . . . Silver Crystal, I wish that Usagi-chan would wake up!"
Nothing.
Apparently the Crystal didn't respond to formally made wishes. Relena felt tears begin to overflow her eyes and desperation overtake her.
"What do I have to do?!? PLEASE Silver Crystal, listen to me! You know me as a member of the Moon royal family! Why won't you grant my wish?!?"
I just want her to wake up . . . she knows so much more about being a princess than I do, I need her help! The pilots need her, DUO needs her! Silver Crystal, we all need her, please, at least let her know that we miss her!
The shuddering pain in her heart grew with the muttering of her silent prayer and threatened to make her a victim of it alluring despair. All of her soul went into this one wish, this hope that her ancestor might awaken and make everything alright.
It was several moments before Relena realized that the tugging in her heart she felt was no longer her own pain, but the Silver Crystal draining the hurt away along with her prayer. Her fingers clasped about the jewel tightly; between them shone the pure white light that Quatre had described after the healing of Trowa. It burned.
Thank you, Silver Crystal . . .
Something wasn't right. She couldn't release the Crystal, it wouldn't let her. The more she struggled to pry her fingers away from its surface, the tighter they seemed to hold. But she couldn't keep holding it; it was draining her energy quickly with no signs of stopping. It was going to kill her! Relena struggled against the inevitable pull of the Moon Kingdom's most powerful weapon of destruction and hope.
Just as she felt the last strains of energy pass from her body into the Crystal., Relena's sight left her and the world went dark.


End Chapter Nineteen.